Club Mutant
by Raven D'Acanto
Summary: A girl only known by Enigma, or E, lives a double life, as human student and downtown partying mutant. In a world where mutants are hated and hunted by every human on the face of the Earth, this could be a bad combination Especially when a fellow student
1. Mutant Convention

((A/N: kinda a new thing I started while on vacation. It isn't really going newhere…. But I liked the intro, so I kept it. -shrugs- maybe it'll be good. Who knows. I'd like feedback on this, just to see if it's worth my time. So please RnR and enjoy!))

A girl known to the downtown population only as Enigma, or E, walks through the old streets. Rain pours hard on her black hooded trench coat and drenches the cement under her feet. She approaches a comic book store sitting in the middle of an old parking lot. The stench of cigarette smoke drifts to her nose and she sees a still lit butt discarded in a cigarette tray sitting by the door. Three signs hang in front of the door: _No smoking, No weapons of any kind,_ and_ Pants and shoes required_. Taped to the door's handle is a thick piece of cardboard with _pull_ written in black sharpie.

She pulls on the door, eager to get away from the suffocating fumes of second hand smoke. The inside is dimply lit. Comic books line the walls and are filed in shelf after shelf of labeled crates. A mother and she child stand at the counter to E's left. The mom eyes her warily and places a protective hand on her son's shoulder. Tony, the owner's cousin, stands at the cash register behind the counter, ringing up the child's comic. He glances up and smiles at E. She gives him a small mile in return, but it can hardly be seen beyond the shadow her hood casts.

Without directions, E walks past the counter and into the tangle of comic books. She doesn't give a second glance to the books on the shelves, but continues on to the back of the store, where a circle of nerds and Goths sit, talking in hushed tones.

One glances up at I and his eyes, decorated with black, blotchy eyeliner, seem to brighten when they fall upon her, "Hey, beautiful, it's been a while. Welcome back."

"Well, if it ain't E. I was startin' to get worried about you," Another kid chimed in, his thickly rimmed glasses glinting in the light.

"So the feds didn't get you after all," a girl adorned in black said with a smile, "We have our Enigma back."

Enigma smiled and said in a velvet soft voice, "It's good to be back. I've missed you guys." She took down her hood and removed the black trench coat. She wore black leather pants with blue stitching and a black tank top, making her deathly white skin look even paler. The only thing to take attention away from her statuesque figure was her stunning face. She had bright clue eyes that were almost like crystals. Her blue tipped raven black hair tumbled past her shoulders. A few newcomers looked at her in awe. She noticed the stunned faces and smiled, "Newbies, huh? I guess I really have been gone too long. So let me introduce myself," She grabbed a chair and sat next to the boy that had first welcomed her before continuing, "I go by Enigma, but you all can call me E. I'm a mutant; what is commonly known as a shape shifter of metamorph."

There was a short silence before the whispered conversation was continued, with E included. Every person who sat in the back of that comic store was a mutant. Every one of them managed to hide themselves from the public. The only time they could talk about what they were was in that store. They stayed past closing hours, talking in the darkness. They talk about anything to keep their minds off of their suffering: Government people constantly patrolling the streets for mutants. If any are found, they are taken away. Nobody knows where the mutants are taken, unless they were one taken, too.

When it neared midnight, Tony closed the store for the night and the mutants went back onto the streets. Enigma walked out of the downtown area and back to her home. She climbed into her room through her window and lay down on her plush bed. Just before she fell asleep, E shapeshifted her body so it looked like the child her parents knew. Her eyes changed from crystalline blue to a foggy green-brown. Her black and blue hair changed to blond with brown highlights four months old. She closed her eyes and fell asleep, no longer Enigma the mutant, but an ordinary high school girl, seemingly human.

* * *

"Wake up, honey," her mom said, gently shaking her shoulder, "You're going to be late for school."

"I'm up," she assured her mother, sitting up and looking at the clock.

Why did Tony have to work Thursday nights? Why couldn't they meet on Fridays or Saturdays? She got up and put on jeans and a grey t-shirt. She shifted her hair into a tight pony tail, no need to brush it, and made her face look like it had a substantial amount of makeup on it. Once convinced she had done a good job on her appearance, she ran out the door to catch the bus. _Just in time_, she thought to herself as she climbed onto the bus and sat in a seat next to her friend. As far as she knew, everybody around her was human; not a mutant for miles. It was comforting for most of the students, but it made her uneasy.

The bus made its last stop, her friend was talking animatedly to her, and a kid got onto the bus. He got onto the bus every day. But today was different. She knew him. His bloodshot eyes slid over to her as she watched him intently. He had been at the comic store the night before. He was one of the newbies; a mutant. She would never have noticed him in any other situation. His hair was short and black, his eyes were brown, almost reddish, and he was slightly over weight. Just a normal kid… but a mutant.

Her friend stopped talking and looked over at her. She barely noticed as he passed, their eyes locked. Suddenly he stopped, his eyes brightened with recognition and he turned to fully face her.

"E?" he asked, voice shocked.

She was surprised he recognized her, and a little scared. But she covered it up quickly. "Excuse me?" she said quietly so only he and her friend could hear, "I think you have me mistaken."

He was about to object, but noticed the warning in her voice and the urgency in her eyes. "Oh. Yeah. Sorry." And he walked on. She turned back to her friend, motioning for her to continue with her story, and she did.

* * *

Everything else at school went normally. She only saw him one more time in the halls, and he said nothing to her. She went home and did her homework before leaving the house to wander downtown and go clubbing. It was Friday and as long as she was home by Saturday morning, her mom didn't mind.

The sun slowly set behind the mountain range beyond the streets of downtown. Luckily it wasn't raining that day, so Enigma didn't need her trench coat. She wore a black tube top with a green frog in the center and black baggy pants with green stitching. Her eyes were bright green with a tint of blue and her shoulder length black hair had lime green highlights. She loved being a shape shifter, she could change her hair and eyes to match her clothes. But she technically didn't wear clothes most of the time; she could just shift clothes on. It had felt weird at first, being naked but not all the time, and it took a lot of practice to keep the clothes the same the whole time. But it was a handy skill to have and a lot of fun to make up outfits for herself without having to actually buy anything.

The first place E went to was the comic book store to see Jonny and make sure Tony made it home alright. Jonny owned the store and was good friends with E. She knew the whole family, and knew they had a knack for getting in trouble.

When she asked, Jonny just laughed, "Yeah, Tony's fine. Just hung over. He's at the house now, sleeping it off. He should be okay for Linzay's tonight."

"So what do you know about the new kids? There are three or four of them. I've never seen them here till last night," E commented, flipping through a comic as they talked.

"Lucas is the one who brought 'em here," Jonny answered, heading back to the counter when he saw a customer standing there. E put down the comic and followed him. "One of the kids's his little brother. The other two 're friends o' the brother. Real high class kids, don'cha think?" He rung up the comics and bagged them, saying "have a nice day" as the customer left. "You can tell by how they act an' dress. Their parents 're high up on the social scale. Lucas is the drop out o' the family. Why do you ask?"

"I saw one of the kids at my school," E answered, her voice lowering, "He recognized me."

"Did he now?" Jonny asked, obviously shocked, "I coulda sworn you dropped out. And how the hell did 'e recognize ya? I've only seen your original form once, an' that was two years ago, when you asked for help." He shook his head, "This could be bad, E, I gotta admit it."

"I know," Enigma replied darkly, "That's why I asked you. What should I do?"

"Find Lucas an' talk to him about it," Jonny said resolutely, "He should be at the Club Cabana. It's still early, his brother could be with him. I'm closing in an hour, then I'll check on Tony an' head over ta Linzay's Place."

"Sounds good. I'll talk to Lucas and meet you at Linzay's." E said before leaving the store and heading down to the Club Cabana. It was a singles bar that played loud music nobody could dance to and served way too much alcohol. Lucas was a people watcher, not a desperate single. And what better place was there to watch people than Club Cabana?


	2. Trouble at Linzay's

Enigma found Lucas sitting at a booth table in the back of Club Cabana. He was alone, sipping something in a foggy glass and watching the people. She walked up to him slowly. When he noticed her, she casually waved. Lucas waved back and motioned for her to sit.

As she sat next to him, he asked, "Want anything to drink? It's on me."

She was slightly comforted that he was still sober, but declined the offer, "That's okay, I'll pass. I actually came here to talk to you," She replied, getting to the subject quickly.

"About?" He prompted, tensing slightly.

"About the new kids you brought to the store last night-"

"Hey," he said, suddenly defensive, "one of 'em's my brother, and the other two are just as close. They're mutants, too. We're all in the same boat, here. You have no reason to be suspicious of-"

"And you have no reason to get angry," E said, calmly cutting him off, "Just tell your brother and his little friends that the next time they recognize me, don't say anything. I don't want anything to do with them."

"Tell 'em yourself," Lucas replied, pointing behind E. She turned around to see the three boys standing behind her.

"You're in my seat," the one that had recognized her said coldly.

E stood, "Sorry, kid. I just came to tell you-"

"I heard," he said, "And my name's Alexander, not kid. I'm just as old as you."

"You may be as old as my," E replied, taking defense instinctively, "but I'm more experienced."

"So you're pretty much saying you think you're better than me."

"Look, I'm not here for a fight-"

"Then what are you here for?" Alexander demanded.

Temper funning thin, E replied angrily, "I'm here to tell you to get the hell outta my life, 'cause I don't need some insecure rich-kid getting in my face and ruining everything I've worked for here."

Lucas stood suddenly, nearly knocking the table over, and placed a hand on E's shoulder. "You've made your point. You can go and have fun now. I don't want to bring my brother's friend's mangled up body home with me, k?"

E nodded and left without a word. She thought she could hear Lucas talking to Alexander as she left. "And that's one of the reasons we call her Enigma. DO _not_ get on her bad side."

* * *

Linzay's Place was one of the most popular raver clubs in down town. It consisted of all the "clean" kids who like to party in a 30 mile radius. The music was good and everything but the food and drinks was free. Everybody brought in their own CDs and handed it to the DJ. If a track got an "A" from the crowd, the assistant would rip the track onto the music selection list. About 3 CDs were brought in every Friday and Saturday night (new music nights) and the DJ would mix those songs in with the usual. The DJ and assistant were local brothers, doin' what they like for free. Admittance was free. The bartenders worked for free (mostly just people watchers that volunteered), and Lindsay bought the refreshments and charged as little as possible without going into debt. Her dad owned the land and handed it over to her for the price of making the place successful. And so it was.

E walked in after being checked over by Brutus. (His real name was Joe, but everybody called him Brutus because he was Lindsay's bodyguard.) She scanned the small groups of people sitting on the sidelines, getting a breather and having a drink, but didn't see Tony or Jonny. Next she looked over the crowd of moshing people, swaying and rocking to the beat. She knew if she wanted to find anybody in _that _crowd, there was only one way to do it. And she wouldn't mind it at all. Squeezing her way in between two twins and their group of adorers, E made her way through the crowd, feeling her body move to the pulsing music. She couldn't help but dance. This was one of her favorite songs!

"_Move and show me what you can do  
When you step into the circle and shake like we do  
Move when you just can't take it  
And move if you just feel like breaking it"_

And soon after the song ended and people stopped moving for the few seconds in between the two songs, E found Jonny standing up by the DJ, who everybody called Rhythm, and his brother, Tech. She came up behind him and tapped his shoulder.

"Where's Tony?" she asked above the song that had just started up.

"Brutus wanted him at the door," Jonny called back, "He should be back soon."

"He's feeling better?" Enigma asked. She always worried about him. He got beer illegally by using his mutant power to make people see whatever he wanted them to. He showed them an elderly man buying beer and they didn't even bother to ID him. It wouldn't matter if they did, he would just produce his ID, only make it look how he did.

Jonny just shrugged, "As good as he's gonna get."

"I'm gonna go look for him," E informed him before making her way back to the door, knowing that was where Brutus was. But instead of Brutus standing on the outside of the door, he was standing on the inside, making sure people couldn't get _out._

"What's going on?" E demanded.

Brutus looked down at her (being 7'4", he had to). "Enigma," he addressed her in a worried tone, "get to the back of the room, don't draw attention to yourself."

"Why?" Enigma asked, all of her anger and suspicion turning to worry. "What's going on?"

She heard a ruckus near the stage and turned to see two guys in all out fed armour standing on the stage, pointing guns towards Rhythm and Tech. She could hear Lindsey as she pushed her way to the stage shouting, "What the hell is your problem! These guys are clean! They're all clean! This is a good club! Go after the ones selling drugs! Not us!" But her attention was turned back to Brutus when he answered Enigma's question.

"They're hunting mutants. They ordered me not to let anybody out. There's an open window in the bathroom. Go out that way. Take all the mutants you know with you."

"Where's Tony?" She asked suddenly.

"They already have him," Brutus answered, "He was the first."

For some reason, that phrasing chilled Enigma to the bone. _He was the first_. Implying there would be more. Many more. Enigma wove her way through the crowd, picking up those she could find that always met at the comic store. She found Blake, the punk kid that always called her beautiful, and Garnet, the girl who always wore black. She tried to find others. She searched for Horus, hoping his thickly rimmed glasses would make him more noticeable. But there wasn't time. They had Rhythm and Tech. They were searching through the crowd. Enigma took those two and brought them with her to the bathroom.

The two bathrooms weren't distinguished between boy and girl, and luckily one was open. The three kids went into it and Enigma found the window open. She told them to get out and followed closely behind them. She jumped from the window, her body in a crouch to catch the impact of the landing. As soon as she straightened, she looked up to make sure the others were okay, to find herself staring down the barrel of a rifle. "Don't move, gene junk. You haven't got a chance. And we've already got your little friends with us." Enigma froze. They had caught her.


End file.
